The Imperial Armaments Bureau. The place where the Imperial Army’s new equipment and weapons were made.
Melee weapons that were easier to handle yet more lethal. More powerful bows.
They experimented with different arrowheads and devised armor that was easy to move in while offering greater defense.
That was the sort of place I had known it to be, but to think they were even developing gunpowder.
Even I, a founding contributor in my own right, had never heard a thing about this.
“That is only natural. In truth, there are only a handful of people in the Armaments Bureau who are properly handling this gunpowder, myself included.”
“Were you not the head of the Armaments Bureau, Lord Hessen?”
“Originally, I was merely in charge of one of the bureau’s development divisions. Then, not long ago, I was suddenly told to take charge of the Armaments Bureau, and I ended up sitting in the position before I knew it. The person who had held the post before stepped down together with the Founding Emperor when His Majesty abdicated to become Emperor Emeritus.”
“Ah. I understand.”
So he had stepped aside, saying new wine ought to be put in new wineskins?
The previous head of the Armaments Bureau was likely someone with deep ties to the Emperor Emeritus.
And if such a man had singled out Hessen as his successor, I could indeed see why.
Perhaps that fellow Ishmael had heard about this and paired me with him because of it.
“The Armaments Bureau must have responded favorably, then? The Imperial Army’s command as well.”
“Pardon? Er… They asked why we needed to use this when we already had flint.”
“Pardon?”
“Or they asked whether we intended to provide a flashy spectacle in front of the enemy.”
“…”
Ah. Now that I thought about it, of course. I knew full well how terrifying gunpowder was.
But in this period, when it had only just appeared, the atmosphere would be more along the lines of: what on earth is that supposed to be?
Yes. If you looked at gunpowder alone, it would seem fair to wonder whether it had any use.
It was difficult to make, even more difficult to manage, and all it did was irritate you.
The only thing it could do was go bang! and explode all by itself.
“They simply do not know yet, Lord Hessen. Think about it. When iron was first discovered, people must have asked what could possibly be done with it. And now it has become spears, swords, and armor.”
“You mean gunpowder could become the same.”
“Is that not why you continue handling it here at the Armaments Bureau testing grounds, Lord Hessen? Because you see the possibility of using it as a weapon?”
“That is correct. Fire, after all, is the most powerful weapon if only it can be handled at will. I want to use this to create new forms of weapons as well.”
If I had my way, I would have told him to start by making a gun right away.
But could he do something even I knew absolutely nothing about?
Rather, he would simply fail to understand and have no idea what I wanted.
“Then what sort of thing do you have in mind, Lord Hessen?”
“For now, I am thinking of attaching it to arrows in place of arrowheads and trying to shoot them.”
“You intend to use it for fire arrows? But then it would explode immediately, would it not?”
“That is why I thought of attaching a small wooden tube to the front and putting the gunpowder inside…”
“It would become quite heavy. It would not fly very far from a bow drawn by human hands.”
Still, if he had gotten as far as combining it with arrows, he had come quite close.
And in that, part of the answer had already been found. This was not something for a person to shoot.
Because both power and danger coexisted within it, it needed a body capable of launching it.
“Then how about arrows that use the force of this gunpowder to fly farther?”
“That is good. I would add to that by attaching another charge of gunpowder to make it explode after it lands.”
“Mm… This gunpowder does not have particularly great killing power. At most, it would cause greater injury to an enemy struck by the arrow.”
“Battle is not necessarily won only by killing people.”
In films and games from my previous life, they had looked like rocket launchers hidden in a rain of arrows.
But in truth, their greater strength than killing individuals lay in area control and fire attacks.
Even if you poured down fire arrows all day long, what if the enemy had no oil or anything flammable?
The grand fire attack one imagined would be impossible to pull off.
But if gunpowder was attached, the story changed. First of all, there would be an explosion.
That alone could exert tremendous pressure and confusion on the enemy.
On top of that, sparks would scatter in every direction, and if they happened to catch on something somewhere…
It would not be very difficult for the surroundings to turn into a sea of flames in an instant.
“Area control rather than killing, and lowering morale through fire… I cannot believe I failed to think of that. My goodness. I was so intoxicated by this thing called gunpowder that I forgot the most basic point.”
“Not at all. To be honest, if I made a new discovery like this, I think I would spend my time only thinking about showing its power directly to the enemy.”
“Then instead of making a tube on an arrow and sending it flying, would it not also be possible to attach it to a spear? A fire attack would be impossible, but if one held such a thing and threw it at the enemy formation, or stabbed with it at close range, I imagine it would have a fairly significant effect.”
As I spoke with Hessen in a frenzy, time flew by before I knew it.
But it felt regrettable to part right away, so we decided to dine together as well.
And as we occasionally mixed in some wine, I naturally came to learn a little about his personal circumstances.
“Ah. Then your father…”
“Yes. He followed the late emperor on campaign, and in particular maintained the weapons and armor of the household troops.”
“That is similar to me. My father followed His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus, and thanks to that, my family and I were able to come this far.”
“Still, did you not go as an envoy to the east and achieve clear results, Executive Director? Compared to that, all I have done is tinker a little with this gunpowder that recently came in from the western frontier.”
“My part is over, but yours is only just beginning, Lord Hessen. Even now, I can feel your tremendous passion for this thing called gunpowder.”
“Hahaha! Is that so? To tell the truth, whenever I see these flames, I truly feel that I am alive.”
If someone heard that wrong, he would sound like a psycho trying to carry out some kind of bombing.
In reality, he was simply a man with passion for gunpowder development and weapons research.
“By the way. If this gunpowder came from the western frontier, then the kingdoms must know something about it as well.”
“I am not a man of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so I do not know that much precisely, but I do know there has been unofficial exchange between the western frontier and the kingdoms.”
“And as luck would have it, the place where saltpeter is found is also the west.”
That was not particularly pleasant news. Of all places, the west.
By the empire’s internal standards, the western region was currently the most unstable.
Not long ago, it was the very place where an actual rebellion had broken out.
The Fifth Prince personally went all the way to the kingdoms and received a promise that they would not intervene.
If not for that, in the worst case, the entire west might have broken away.
‘Come to think of it, I’m suddenly curious. Just how did that man persuade the kingdoms? From their perspective, it must have been the perfect opportunity.’
They could discreetly provide support to those who longed for the days of Condor.
And then, if they made the western frontier rise in rebellion and become independent?
Since everything would be severed from the empire at once, the frontier would cling to the kingdoms.
Afterward, the kingdoms could use the help they had provided as an excuse to extract all sorts of things.
If things went wrong, they could even negotiate with the empire and hand the frontier back.
The kingdoms had given up all of those possibilities and chosen not to intervene.
I could understand why the Fifth Prince’s faction had been dissatisfied with me at the time.
After such an achievement, all praise should naturally have poured onto him.
But unfortunately, immediately afterward, I made an even greater achievement in the east.
I succeeded in building relations not only with the Urut tribe, but also with other nearby tribes.
Temporary though it was, I had even greatly reduced the scale of their raids.
“Then the western kingdoms could also make something similar to this. At the very least, they could try to devise it.”
“But saltpeter, the most important ingredient, is found in great quantities near the frontier. The kingdoms are much farther west than that, so they will have considerable difficulty securing the materials.”
“That is good news.”
The most important thing in gunpowder was, of course, saltpeter. Without it, nothing could be done.
There were strategic resources that could not be obtained no matter how much money one had.
After gunpowder appeared, this saltpeter would become a resource subject to control.
Thinking of it that way, I once again realized just how remarkable the Fifth Prince’s achievement at the time had been.
If he had failed to prevent the kingdoms from intervening. If the western frontier had fallen into their hands.
The large-scale saltpeter mines might have entered the kingdoms’ sphere of influence.
If that had happened, we would not even have been able to properly handle this gunpowder after painstakingly researching it.
On the contrary, we would have been tense, saying this dreadful weapon of the future had tilted toward the kingdoms.
An empire in name, yet forced to buy strategic resources from kingdoms?
I was certain there could be nothing more horrifying in the world.
“Um, by the way. Executive Director.”
“You may call me Ethan comfortably. I will not be in this position for long anyway.”
“Pardon? Why is that? I understand it has not even been a year since you took that seat.”
“In exchange, have I not set off a series of very major incidents? Whether that counts as merit or fault, in the end, I have stood out too much. At this point, it is only right that I step down quickly and hand it over to the next person.”
Of course, I would finish pummeling the former Fourth Prince, Berkiel, before leaving.
By now, it should have spread so far that even a member of the imperial family could not handle it.
Tax evasion was not the problem. Even the creation of illegal funds could be covered up.
The real issue was that, in the process, he had joined hands with underworld forces of all people.
One of the Founding Emperor’s greatest weaknesses was that he came from an insignificant house.
His alliance with Lezestis had also been an attempt to solve the problem of his family somehow.
That was also why he had linked each of the princes to influential houses.
Of course, thanks to the backlash, he had now been completely pushed aside.
“Then I will call you Lord Ethan comfortably. The truth is, I was a little curious. Have you perhaps heard of this gunpowder before?”
“Pardon?”
“It is something even the Armaments Bureau has only just begun to touch. It is an object known only to those in the know, yet you speak as though you have known about it for a long time, Lord Ethan. Ah, of course, I know that is absurd. Hahaha!”
“Hahaha! Is that not because you explained it so clearly, Lord Hessen?”
True. I had chattered on far too much, as if I had known everything from the beginning.
If even someone in development like Hessen had noticed, I would do well to be careful.
Not because of issues like a previous life or anything of the sort. Rather, how did I know sensitive information?
If I came under that kind of suspicion, it would not be good in any direction.
“It has gotten late. We should start wrapping things up.”
“It has. Today was a truly enjoyable time. I think I understand why His Highness arranged this meeting. I wonder what the person I am to meet tomorrow will be like.”
“If it is not rude to ask, what sort of person are you scheduled to meet tomorrow, Lord Ethan?”
“His Highness said he was a military figure named ‘Sedrun.’ Do you perhaps know anything about him?”
The moment he heard my words, Hessen’s face suddenly stiffened.